How I use the Primal Human Needs to live a balanced life

The tricky thing about running a psychology training company is that there’s an expectation that you should be 100% sorted 100% of the time.

Back in real life, of course, running a company is running a company. In fact, there might even be a bit of ‘cobbler’s shoes’ syndrome going on.

If things do get a bit stressful, at least I have the framework of the Primal Human Needs to fall back on as a quick checklist.

Staying sane in the modern world

In case you don’t know, Uncommon Knowledge use this framework as a basis for a healthy life, both when we’re treating individual clients and developing our online products.

I’ll tell you the sorts of things I do to manage stress on a weekly basis. But first, here’s the list of Primal Human Needs:

feel safe and secure day to day

give and receive attention

have a sense of some control and influence over events in life

feel stretched and stimulated by life to avoid boredom

have fun sometimes and feel life is enjoyable

feel intimate with at least one other human being

feel connected to and part of a wider community

be able to have privacy and time to privately reflect

have a sense of status, a recognizable and appreciated role in life

have a sense of competence and achievement

a sense of meaning about life and what we do.

How I use the needs

Now, sometimes when I read this sort of ‘how I do it’ article, I get the feeling that the writer is some kind of super-organized superhero who cuts their day into time slots, each allocated to a specific activity with a designated aim.

Do these people really exist? Well, if they do, I’m not one of them. The list of things below has come about through trial and error and it’s by no means perfect. AND I let various parts of it slip at different times. But I do know that if I stick to it at least 80%, then I’m generally happier and healthier.

Play with my family. This takes effort every day because, due to the nature of my work, I can always be working. But really submerging myself in having fun with my kids quickly switches off the business part of my brain and reminds me how to have fun and relax. If you don’t have a child handy, you could try our ‘Eyes of a Child‘ session.

Spend time with my wife. Intimacy is important to me; before I had kids, I didn’t realize how important (“you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone…”). Although our parents are both within a 4-hour drive, it’s not the same as having grandparents next door, so we have to make more of an effort to make time to spend together. Often this takes the form of a weekend away together. And now that our kids are a little older, we’ve got a local babysitter so we can get a night out every week. On a daily basis, this means getting the kids in bed early enough that we can watch half an hour’s TV together.

Get time alone. As I’ve got (a little) older, I’ve realized just how much I need alone time. I really enjoy company and working in a team is great fun. But unless I get a good part of a day alone every week, the inside of my brain starts to feel like a child’s toybox: stuff everywhere with no real idea of what goes with what.

Hang out with friends. I do love a good blether [Scottish for ‘chat’]. If that can be with a friend with a great sense of humour, then all the better. This is something I need to do better, as work and family commitments often make it difficult to spend time with pals.

Get outdoors. Spend at least half an hour (if possible, an hour) outside every day. That’s sometimes a challenge here on the wet and windy west coast, but as we’re fond of repeating around these parts, “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing”. So, in the morning you’ll often find me working outside, building a path, moving and chopping logs for next winter, or just walking up the hill behind our house. There’s also something more intangible about being in nature that seems to enhance my wellbeing.

Sleep a lot. Generally I’m pretty healthy and have great energy levels, but the times I get ill almost always coincide with missed sleep. So it’s bed by 10 (ish), up at 7.

Watch the stress/workaholism. I love my work so much I can end up doing too much of it. There is so much we want to do and the opportunities are so exciting, it’s easy to spend way too much energy on it, to the point of brain meltdown (technical psychological term). This tends not to happen as long as I stick to my rule of time outside, which somehow ‘resets’ my brain.

Stay connected to my community. When we first moved to Oban, I hated the sensation of not knowing what was going on around me and not being able to help move things in the right direction. Now, I’m involved with tutoring business skills at the local high school and with a local social enterprise that keeps my finger on the pulse of the community and lets me contribute what I can.

Learn a lot. I’m at my happiest when I’m learning. When I start to lose some of my joy for life, it’s often because everyday things have got in the way of learning for several weeks. I like big ideas, new ways of doing business, and stimulating conversations, so I do what I can to ensure they’re always in my life.

That’s about it. I hope I’ve given you a sense of how to use the Primal Human Needs in your own life.

Tell me how you keep things in balance in your life in the comments below…